Project 412340

For this project, Alberta Recreation and Parks Association (ARPA) will work in collaboration with United Way of Calgary and Area to support a Treaty 7 Elders' discussion around the connections between traditional gender role and wellness. This discussion will be part of the emerging Indigenous Elders Lodge in Calgary whose mandate is to help bridge gaps in cultural understanding as well as enable knowledge transfer to the next generation through the use of Indigenous and Western system parallels. The Indigenous Elders' Lodge project will highlight teachings centred on gendered perspectives surrounding ceremony, protocol, and traditional land-based activities as well as knowledge transfer in an Indigenous context as related to impacts on wellness. Alberta Health's Service's 2016 report, "Addiction and Mental Health: The Indigenous Patient Journey Project" states that those who no longer needed the support of Addiction and Mental Health Services claim that one of the most change-influencing circumstance was a connection to culture and spirituality. The idea of healing, however, is not only an individual process but also a social one, implying the need for safe environments that will enable healthy relationships. This interconnectedness to others but also to nature and to culture is a vital concept underlying the foundations of Indigenous identity. This identity is seen as a complex interrelationship built upon collective values and shared belief systems focusing on history, ceremony, and the land. The Indigenous Elders' Lodge project will allow Elders in Treaty 7 to explore these concepts in a safe and ethical space with a particular focus on how traditional constructions of gender affected wellness in the past with the goal of deciding how (or if) these learnings should be brought forward into the present and even into the future.